George Rodney

George Brydges Rodney (13 February 1719-24 May 1792) was an Admiral of the Royal Navy of Great Britain during the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. Rodney is best known for his victory at Cape St. Vincent in 1780 and the Battle of the Saintes in 1782.

Biography
George Rodney joined the Royal Navy at the age of 13 and first saw action as a captain in Edward Hawke's famous attack on the French convoy off Cape Finisterre in 1747. For three decades, his career followed a path that was distinguished but unspectacular, its high point being the capture of the French colony Martinique in 1762. In the 1770s, he went bankrupt and moved to Paris to escape his creditors. When France and then Sapin went to war with the British in 1778, he returned to cmmand, paying his debts with money provided by a French aristocrat. In January 1780, Rodney came upon a weak Spanish squadron off Cape St. Vincent and launched a general chase that he carried through to the destruction of the Spanish ships.

Battle of the Saints
Rodney's greatest triumph folllowed in the West Indies in April 1782, when he met a French fleet commanded by the Comte de Grasse, victor over the British at Cheseapeake Bay. Five French ships were taken and de Grasse made prisoner. It is not clear if Rodney intended the breaking of the French line for which the battle is famous, and he was criticized for his failure to pursue the defeated enemy, but it was a striking victory and he retired heaped with honors.